Oreo Balls

For New Years Eve my sister wanted me to make Oreo Balls. I never made them before so I got online and found a recipe that sounded yummy!

Everything Needed

 Mixing Pudding and Milk together

 Adding Oreo's

 Shape into balls

 Dipped in chocolate

 Refrigerate 20mins and ready to go

Ingredients:

• 1 (3.9) package JELL-O Chocolate Pudding
• 1/2 cup milk
• 36 OREO cookies, finely crushed
• 1 1/2 packages BAKER'S Semi-sweet chocolate, Melted
• 1 square BAKER'S White chocolate, Melted (I didn't do this step)

Directions:

1. Beat pudding mix and milk in medium bowl with whisk 2 mins. Add cookie crumbs, mix well
2. Shape into 1 inch balls
3. Freeze 10 mins
4. Dip in semi-sweet chocolate; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan
5. Refrigerate 20mins or until firm.
6. Drizzle with white chocolate; refrigerate 10 mins or until firm.

Chocolate Snowdrops

Saturday night we had a ugly sweater and cookie exchange party to attend. I didn't just want to make the normal boring old cookies you just pop in the oven. So I started looking around to find some fun cookies to make. I ran across this recipe and thought it would be prefect for this time of year. 

And of course they sounded yummy!

So after my photo shoot on Saturday morning I came home and baked a little over 3 dozen of these cookies. I took 2 dozen to the exchange and the other dozen was given to the homeless shelter. 

Here's everything you need to make these cookies. Remember these pictures reflect making 3dz.  

You mix the cake mix, whipped topping and egg all together. 

Then you take and make 1 inch balls and roll in the confectioner's sugar. 

Place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake on 350 for 10 mins.

Chocolate Snowdrops

Ingredients:

These ingredients reflect making just a dozen of these.

• 1 (18.25oz) package devil's food cake mix with pudding
• 2 1/4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar for decoration

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine cake mix, whipped topping and egg together. Mix well. Mixture will be sticky
3. Drop 1 inch balls of dough into confectioner's sugar, roll slightly to form uniform size balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 10 mins. Remove to racks to cool. Store in tightly covered container.

Pumpkin Pie

Yes I know I'm sure everyone knows how to make pumpkin pie. But I am sharing recipes from Thanksgiving so it's a must I share the recipe I use. :) I love pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream! Yum!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 (9in) unbaked pie crust
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 15oz can Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 12 oz can Evaporated Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Mix together
3. In large bowl beat eggs lightly, stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mix. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
4. Pour into pie shell
5. Bake 15mins. Reduce temp to 350 degrees. Bake 40-50mins or until knife comes out clean.
6. Cool on wire rack for 2hrs

Cranberry Sauce

A few years ago we were left with the task at Thanksgiving of bringing the cranberries. Well Shane didn't want to just get cranberries and dump them out of a can, so he went on a hunt for a good cranberry sauce recipe. And let me tell you he found the best one! This is requested as a must every year. It's super good. I recommend that everyone try it at least once!

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 5 (3in) Cinnamon sticks
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 8 whole cloves
• 6 cups fresh cranberries (2 bags)
• 2 1/4 cups orange juice
• 4 Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 4 Bosc pears, peeled, cored and diced
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Place cinnamon sticks, allspice berries and cloves onto the center of an 8 inch square of cheesecloth. Gather together the edges of the cloth and tie with kitchen twine.
2. Place the sachet into large saucepan along with cranberries and orange juice
3. Bring to boil over heat and cook until berries burst, about 10mins
4. Stir in apples, pears, white sugar and brown sugar. Return to boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until apples and pears are slightly soft, 25mins
5. Remove and discard the spice sachet.
6. Pour into bowl and over
7. Refrigerate overnight
8. Serve cold

Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole

This was the first time we made this recipe at Thanksgiving. Shane decided he wanted a sweet potato recipe so he found this casserole one. It turned out to be really good! I'm sure we will be having this again.

Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole

• Cooking Spray
• 3 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• Kosher Salt
• 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat over to 350 degress. Mist 8-inch baking dish with cooking spray
2. Bring a few inches of water to boil in a pot with large steamer basket in place. Put the sweet potatoes in the basket, cover and steam unit tender, 20-25 minutes. We didn't have a steamer basket so we just boiled the potatoes and it worked just fine.
3. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and let cool slightly. Add the honey, egg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the nutmeg, ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of salt; whip with an electric mixer unitl smooth.
4. Spread the sweet potato mixture in the prepared baking dish.
5. Mix the brown sugar, pecans, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl, sprinkle over the potatoes. Bake unit hot and beginning to brown around the edges, 40-45 minutes.

Ingredients

Slow Cooker Stuffing

I mentioned a few weeks ago in my Thanksgiving post that I would post the recipes to all the yummy food that we made for our dinner. Now finally that I got some time to get these posted here is the first one I wanted to share.
Shane found this Slow Cooker Stuffing recipe. We decided to make this for the first time this Thanksgiving. We always had the problem in the past where we didn't have enough room in the oven or on the stove to keep everything warm. We thought this slow cooker recipe would be great since it cooks in the crock pot and would free up some space for us to cook other things. It turned out wonderful! I can't wait to make this again.

Slow Cooker Stuffing

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 12 ounces sliced mushrooms
• 12 cups dry bread cubes
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 1/2 cups chicken broth, or as needed
• 2 eggs, beaten

Directions

1. Melt butter or margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion, celery, mushroom, and parsley in butter, stirring frequently.
2. Spoon cooked vegetables over bread cubes in a very large mixing bowl. Season with poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram, and salt and pepper. Pour in enough broth to moisten, and mix in eggs. Transfer mixture to slow cooker, and cover.
3. Cook on High for 45 minutes, then reduce heat to Low, and cook for 4 to 8 hours.

We had so much cooking to do I didn't have time to take a lot of pictures while making this.
This pictures is when it's completely done and ready to eat!